I really look forward to the 4th of July. It is always a day of pure fun and memory-making with my family. First up is always the neighborhood parade. The girls decorate their bikes on their own. The parade is even better now that we have lots of school friends in the neighborhood.
I like that every 4th of July starts the same, but is a little different. This year we went swimming at PV Pool...and then to a friend's backyard pool. Two pools in one day? Amazing. Back home for a quick change of clothes (and nap) and then to Leawood Park. We really liked their fireworks show last year. This year we we got some sweet balloon swords that made noises!
Like last year we got a spot up on the hill. It is pretty awesome to look out over the crowd while snuggling up with my girls. This is the same field where Hannah had her very first soccer practice and still practices now. Ah, memories.
We continued the 4th of July fun on the 6th of July in Chillicothe with fireworks at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Uncle Justin was back for a visit from Idaho. It was the first time we saw him since he moved in February 2017.
Olive is still scared of sparklers. So it is just Hannah.
And then even more 4th of July fun...on the 7th of July! We picked up Ainslyn and Gwendolyn from the fireworks stand and watched the Chillicothe show in Simpson Park. It turns out parenting four girls isn't that bad when they all run off and play together.
Epic 4th of July weekend. We started Friday morning with the neighborhood parade. Although Olive CAN ride a tricycle, we had doubts that she WOULD ride it for the whole parade route. She agreed to another year of the stroller. Hannah upgraded her bike with training wheels to a new 7-speed bike without training wheels. More on the bike in another post.
After the neighborhood parade we headed to Village Fest (or Line Fest as Steve likes to call it). Instead of fireworks, Prairie Village spends money on a kid festival with bouncy houses, petting zoo, train ride, and all sorts of activities. All free!
We waited in a huge line to do the giant hamsterball. This was Hannah's #1 priority for Village Fest. Steve helped push her up the hill and then she went down all by herself. Olive decided to try it too, but only made it halfway up before she wanted to be done.
Olive's top priority was the petting zoo, although these pictures are of Hannah.
The bike shows you the amount of energy it takes to power different light bulbs.
We took Hannah's bike to the skateboard park and both girls ran around in the pit. It almost gave me a heart attack to see Hannah ride up and down ramps.
We went back to our house for lunch and naps, then back to the Prairie Village pool. The pool is right next to Village Fest and it is free to everyone on July 4th. When Olive saw it she said, "I would give anything to go swimming today!" So of course we had to go. Our first time swimming this summer. Then we headed to Olathe for the Holcombe's backyard party for dinner. The girls played in their blow-up pool and this was a water balloon catch game. We could see Olathe's fireworks from a trail by their house. Although the girls were more interested in catching fireflies than watching fireworks. They only stay up late enough for fireflies a couple times a year, so it is a big deal!
Saturday we went to Chillicothe for Laura's wedding reception. She got married in Florida in the spring. I've been friends with Laura since kindergarten and she was a reader in our wedding. It was so fun to meet her husband and hear their story. And Uncle Casey's parents were at the reception, too! I tried to get Hannah to tell his mom that "Uncle Casey is stinky," but she wouldn't do it. She had to be polite. Bah. Isn't the point of having kids to get them say funny things?
For unknown reasons Chillicothe had their fireworks show on July 5th, so we got a bonus show. The local radio station played music before the fireworks and the girls did a light show with glow sticks and LED light sticks.
We have never been that close to the fireworks before. They filled the sky! They radio played patriotic music throughout the show, which was kinda cool at first...then a little annoying. Speaking of annoying, there was a dancing Olive blocking the show. Don't even ask why she is wearing too-short Dora shirt and too big skirt. I'm not allowed to pick out her clothes.
It was a big 4th of July weekend for us! We went to Chillicothe for part of it and visited the great-grandparents. Steve's parents work at a fireworks stand every year, so we always stay with mine for the holiday. Last year Hannah did some smoke balls and snakes. This year we let her stay up late and do some bigger fireworks. She was mostly interested in the lighting of the fireworks, not really watching them. Her favorite things of the weekend were really the trampoline, piano, and claw. She tried to catch fireflies with the claw, but it didn't work as well as she thought it would.
The girls napping on the way back to KC on Sunday.
We were excited to spend the actual 4th of July at our house. We decorated the stroller and walked in our neighborhood parade for the first time. There were treats and a bouncy house at the end.
The girls also saw big fireworks for the first time. We can actually see the golf course show from our backyard, which Hannah thought was very neat. Then we drove to watch the Overland Park show (in pjs). Hannah got bored halfway through and started picking clovers, but it held Olive's interest.
I tried to take a picture of the girls together, but it is pretty impossible to get them both looking at the camera.
So I cropped the other one out for individual pictures!
It was also a big weekend because Olive rolled over for the first time and Hannah learned to ride her tricycle! She's been riding it every day since.
We tried out a new fireworks show in Lee's Summit on July 2. It was at a sports complex with different parking lots for soccer/football/baseball fields. Each parking lot had a bouncy house, face painting, concession stand, etc. The fireworks show itself was set to music on the radio. And after it they had police at every corner directing traffic and they made roads one-way to get everyone out quickly. We were very impressed.
I can't remember a 4th of July where I was cold enough to wrap up in a blanket. We watched the show with Hannah on my lap and Olive on Steve's lap and a blanket over all of us.
The morning of the 4th we did our annual neighborhood parade. They girls treat the 4th like Christmas. They were looking forward to it all week. This was the first year Olive rode a bicycle and she did a great! She was so proud. She said it was the best day of her life.
She wouldn't let me get ahead of her to take a picture.
Hannah designed her shirt. It's a firework.
New this year: snow cones!
Then we headed to Chillicothe. We stopped by to see Granny and Papa, but they are always busy with the fireworks stand. My family was all in town to celebrate Independence Day as well as my dad's retirement (independence from work). My aunt and uncle came over to see the gun show fireworks show.
Meneely tradition: dancing to the strobe lights
And we rounded out the weekend by picking peaches. I have many memories of taking rides in the bucket with my grandpa driving.
